July 12, 2008
iPod Touch and iPhone Update
After two days of frustration, I've now successfully gotten the new version of the iPod Touch software loaded and am now just doing the sync of the applications I've been acquiring since Thursday.
The time is now 00:44 on Sunday a.m.
The process of loading the new software and all the associated backups takes longer than you might expect (even on my mere 8 GB version of the Touch) at a good 30 minutes.
Just tried out the Remote app. Super cool! Change the volume on the iPod and watch it update the volume on your iTunes. Cool. The response time is impressive, less than a second, and that with the music streaming to an Airport Express. Only minor disappointment is that the cover flow view doesn't work when I'm looking at the album view but it makes sense given the bandwidth requirements that would be associated with that.
The Facebook app is an improvement over the browser one in many ways, although I do feel like I'm missing some functionality as it seems simplified somehow. The more frequent uses of images is nice, as is the the chat function now included.
The AIM apps seems to not make it easy to switch back and forth between accounts. Once I logged in with my AIM screen name I can't seem to get back and login with my .Mac account. It seems once you have picked an account type, you're stuck with it.
The PayPal app is very stripped down i.e. no choice of funds source, not enough confirmations, etc. I did my test sending $5 but I'd rather use a browser for anything more than that just to have some control over the transactions parameters.
NetNewsWire worked well in terms of synchronizing with my online account, but felt a little sluggish at times compared to the other apps I downloaded. That said, I'll definitely use it help my get through my feeds more often.
I downloaded Sudoku because my girlfriend likes it and I saw that Electronic Arts made it. The interface looks beautiful and functional so far and a big improvement over the browser versions I saw before now.
More apps and credit card transactions to come but this is a great addition to an already great device.
Now if only Apple could get their infrastructure together to handle the infrastructure requirements for this scale of launch. The software update for the iPod version 2 was 226MB which is no small amount, but if the iTunes store can handle music and video and Apple can normally manage big OS and app software updates, they should be able to handle this without the kind of hassles customers had to put up with in the last couple of days.
Still worth the wait, but I saw a little better management of this kind of thing on the XBOX360 servers, than I saw on this one from Apple. They better buck up a little next time round, Apple lost ground in my books on the technical gaffes on this launch.
Hopefully I can get a hold of an iPhone in the next week. I had not luck today although I didn't start until mid-morning. I'm convinced Rogers only brought about 50 into the city where I live (I heard 17 at one location and 5 at other), no doubt so they can brag about the "success" of their launch day. Too bad the rogers.com website was unusable most of the day, but I find it quite slow at the best of time when logging into my wireless account. I often get errors just signing into my account and looking at phone upgrade paths. At least the fido.ca site was functioning at much better capacity. I'm considering Fido instead, just to get more reasonable pricing on the voice plans now that we can add on Roger's face-saving 6 GB data plan.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 1:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 8, 2006
canada.com - no RSS?
So, I decided to go through the other day and tweak my news feeds in NetNewsWire.
Had some CBC for provincial news, and Globe and Mail for national and business news and was looking around for a good local feed. So, since CanWest and the local paper - the Regina LeaderPost - is all tied in to this - I thought I'd check out what canada.com had for feeds.
Turns out they don't have any. Gee - I would have thought an outfit like this would be acting like it's 2006. I think RSS is the price of entry to the category these days. And really odd that it wouldn't be included since there was a fairly recent redesign on the site.
Hey, since we're acting like it's 1999 - maybe they could just add a handy link somewhere so I can make canada.com my homepage?
Lame.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 12:51 PM
August 6, 2006
Apple MacBook Pro - Initial Impressions
I bought a new Apple MacBook Pro laptop about 3 months ago.
Other than doubling as a hot plate I could fry an egg on, I love it. The main music app I use - Pro Tools M - is all good to go. Microsoft Office still drags on it as does Dreamweaver, but it's not too bad. Don't even talked to me about Adobe CS. I don't know what the hold up is with Adobe on getting their stuff written for the new Intel chipset. Ridiculous. Everything else runs nice though.
I'm loving the whole .Mac thing. Has me feeling a lot better about not losing important data.
Only, I noticed that the fan make some weird noises sometime. Not a huge deal except that I do some recording right beside the laptop and if I was doing a vocal recording in the control room it would be a drag as the noise would leak into the mic.
Other than that, I'm loving it.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 3:23 PM
August 5, 2006
Apple Airport Express
Everyone should have an Apple Airport Express.
No reason not to really. They work with PCs and Mac alike. They are an elegant solution to serving up some wi-fi, handling printing duties and getting music from your laptop wirelessly to your stereo. And it all integrates wonderfully with iTunes.
And they are so small, that they work as a great mobile wi-fi solution. I took one fairly recently on a trip with me where a group of us were meeting in a hotel and I was able to set up a mobile network for anyone in the meeting who wanted internet access.
I have two in my house - one upstairs and one downstairs - partially to connect to the two main stereo setups and partially to make sure that the wireless coverage is sufficient. Frankly, they aren't the cheapest solution if you have to buy more than one. But considering the prevlance of laptops, they are almost a must-have piece of gear to get your laptop hooked up to some music and print capabilities - especially since using a wire to do so is very inconvenient.
So, if you don't have one. Go and get one. Best $159 CAD you'll spend for a computer peripheral.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 3:13 PM
April 14, 2006
Starbucks meets Hooked On Phonics - New Sleeves Suck
Okay, I don't know what the deal with is the spelling bee sleeves on the Starbucks cups.
I don't care for the colour or the silly self-improvment trivia. Bring me back the oh so naturel unbleached corrugated sleeves - you're wrecking the iconic design of the quintessential paper cup.
And on the top of self-improvement, I must defer to my mentor - Tyler Durden:
"Self improvement is masturbation. Now self destruction... "
-Tyler Durden
I want a luxury experience not hooked on phonics... I think someone totally misread what the brand represents to the consumer on this one.
This photo courtesy of bad lighting and not enough megapixels on my Motorola ROKR.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 2:35 PM | Comments (1)
February 14, 2006
XBOX 360 - First Problem
Here we go. My XBOX 360 rewarded me with my first error.
So, here's the note I send in to Microsoft support:
I turned on my XBOX 360 yesterday and received an E67 error on startup. I shut it off and restarted it and it was fine after that. Does this XBOX need service? I searched and the XBOX support site didn't seem to provide any information on the error that I could find.
And here's the response I received . . .
Thank you for writing Xbox Customer Support!
We deeply apologize for the inconvenience. It sounds like this has been a very frustrating experience for you. After careful review of your issue, we have determined that it is best that you call the Xbox Customer Support number for better assistance; United States and Canada : 1-800-4MY-XBOX (1-800-469-9269) International direct dial to US : 1- 425-635-7180.
Our phone representatives will assist you 7 days a week from 9:00AM -12:00 MN CST (Central Standard Time). Thank you for understanding.
To expedite service, please provide Service Request Number <1009142766> when you call.
For more information about Xbox360, please visit http://www.xbox.com or http://www.xbox.com/360.
Sincerely,
Heidi
Xbox Customer Care Team
---------------
I don't think I sounded frustrated in my note, but I was after the robotic response - clearly designed to suggest they were being empathetic - and not really addressing my problem.
Sketchy product. Poor launch. Why wouldn't I expect lousy service to go with? Disappointing.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 8:33 AM | Comments (3)
February 8, 2006
Gillette Fusion - Product Review
So, I get all caught up on the whole Gillette Fusion thing and run down to the store and buy one. I'm a sucker for these kind of things for this reaaon - when I can get the latest technology in a category for ten or fifteen bucks - who can resist???
And I'm talking on the phone the whole time while I'm walking around WalMart shopping so I'm not really paying attention to what I'm doing but I figure since I'm going to give this thing a shake I might as well buy an extra set of blades with it and the Fusion-branded shaving gel and face balm stuff too.
So I get up to the till and here it's 48 bucks for all of it!!! What!!! By this point, I'm thinking this thing had better give me a glorious shave or I'm going to freak!!!
So, I let the growth go another day so I can give this thing a run for it's money.
Long and short:
- it looks really cool
- very close shave
- I find there's a little more resistance when shaving that the Mach 3 Power set up I was using - (overall the Mach 3 set seems to glide smoother and with less of that "tearing" sensation
- the little trimmer thing doesn't live up to the promise at all and it's only really necessary because the thing is so damn big now - you were okay trimming the top part of your lip with a smaller blade and didn't really even need an extra specialty blade for it - now you do just because of its sheer size
- the power button is better - it's not as liklely to get turn accidently on and off like the Mach 3
- I'm suspicious of the low-battery indicator - I suspect they're in bed with Duracell on it to make sure that the battery never goes anywhere near being low
Bottom line: marginal improvement in some respects and a step back in others. Net zero at best.
I'll go through the first blade and the replacement blades but don't be surprised if I go back to the Mach 3 Power when this is all done.
Posted by Derek Leverington at 11:22 AM | Comments (1)